Peacebuilding Commission: Ambassadorial-level meeting with the 8th Advisory Group of the Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund
Statement delivered by H.E. Beth Delaney, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
25 November 2025
Thank you Chair,
Australia thanks all briefers and warmly welcomes Ambassador Kamau and members of the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) Advisory Group.
These interactive dialogues are an important platform for the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) to contribute to the strategic direction of the Fund.
Chair, I wish to make three points today:
First, I want to commend the PBF for its excellent work throughout 2025.
Australia is focused on conflict prevention.
We consider the PBF an important tool in our approach to conflict prevention, which is why we tripled our contribution in 2024.
And we see the benefit of this in the Indo-Pacific.
We particularly commend the Fund’s support to Papua New Guinea.
This year, the PBF supported the Government of Papua New Guinea to develop its National Prevention Strategy.
It did this by providing technical assistance and facilitating PNG’s inclusive, nationally owned stakeholder consultations.
This is a strong example of how the PBF can advance National Prevention Strategies, which were called for in the Pact for the Future, and endorsed in the Peacebuilding Architecture Review, to be adopted tomorrow.
Second, Papua New Guinea illustrates the catalytic potential of the PBF.
Constructive partnership between the Government and the World Bank supported by targeted PBF engagement, enabled Papua New Guinea to become the first country outside of Africa to access World Bank financing under its Fragility, Conflict and Violence envelope.
This demonstrates how the PBF can unlock innovative financing and complement partnerships with international financial institutions.
In this context, we welcome insights on what contributed to the success of this UN-World Bank collaboration, and how these lessons might be replicated in other contexts?
In a resource constrained environment, we encourage the Fund’s Advisory Group to prioritise investments where the PBF can catalyse longer term, sustainable financing.
Third, this year is the first time the PBF has benefited from assessed contributions.
It is also clear that prevention saves the enormous costs of conflict.
Despite this progress, the Fund continues to operate under significant resource constraints, with voluntary contributions being a primary source of funding.
We would be interested to hear how the Advisory Group proposes to broaden and diversify the Fund’s financing base.
Thank you.